Cypress Semiconductor has sold its Silicon Light Machines (SLM) subsidiary to Dainippon Screen Manufacturing (DNS) for an undisclosed price.

The move by San Jose-based Cypress follows on a series of sales by the company as it continues to shed non-core businesses.

Last year, the company sold its PSRAM product line, its network search engine business, its Silicon Valley Technology Center R&D unit, and its San Jose test facility. In addition, Cypress closed its Texas fab as it moved toward an asset-lite model.

The acquisition will make SLM a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyoto, Japan-based DNS. Until the purchase, DNS was SLM's largest Grating Light Valve (GLV) customer. GLV technology, SLM's flagship product, consists of a series of microscopic ribbons suspended above a silicon substrate that can be tuned to diffract laser light in different ways.

According to Cypress, the MEMS technology is ideal for computer-to-plate (CTP) commercial printing and other imaging applications.

Acquired by Cypress in August 2000 as an entrance into the optical network technology market, SLM also developed a high-performance laser optical navigation sensor technology marketed under the name OvationONS, which has become popular in high-end gaming markets.

Cypress said it will keep the OvationONS product line and integrate it into its core business.

"This transaction reflects our desire to divest businesses that are not optimally aligned with our mission to become a global programmable solutions leader," said Cypress' President and CEO TJ Rodgers in a statement from the company Tuesday.

"The divestiture of SLM's GLV business-the seventh such transaction in two years-will bring greater focus to our core business, while the integration of SLM's optical laser navigation technology will enable us to expand our suite of programmable solutions serving the keyboard/mouse market."

In its own statement, DNS said with the acquisition it aims to create new business by leveraging the combined strengths of SLM's optical MEMS technology and its own core technologies including image data processing to pursue an expansion in the semiconductor, flat-panel display, and printed circuit board industries.

"Silicon Light Machines' GLV technology has been an enabler for our leadership position in thermal CTP printing applications. Now that it is part of DNS, we will be looking to this group to produce products that will enable us to expand our imaging technology into other markets," Masanari Tsuda, DNS CTO, said in the Cypress statement.

"SLM's technology will play an important role in the company's growing business."

DNS said SLM will continue to serve its existing customers under its new corporate umbrella.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News - Electronic News

See also: Electronics Weekly's focus on MEMS, for a roundup of content related to this topic.